Chief of Staff Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Are you searching for a chief of staff job description? Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a chief of staff. Feel free to use our chief of staff job description template to produce your own chief of staff job description. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as chief of staff.
Who is a Chief of Staff?
A chief of staff, sometimes known as the chief executive assistant, assists executives in their daily tasks or assumes some of their minor obligations to support them in their positions. Among their responsibilities are representing the executive leader at meetings and taking minutes, directing and implementing various strategic planning procedures throughout the company, and giving leadership members crucial corporate information to help them get ready for meetings or presentations.
The role of a chief of staff is to assist executives in their duties. While attending meetings on behalf of the senior leader, they take on lesser duties, manage other daily tasks, create notes for them, and oversee strategic planning initiatives across a business.
Managing the logistics of a CEO or executive’s daily job, like presentations, interactions with coworkers, and scheduling is one of the key responsibilities of a chief of staff.
Chiefs of Staff are essential in ensuring that leaders stay in close contact with their business. They accomplish this by taking up everyday responsibilities, communicating closely with staff members, and spotting and resolving any potential problems. Additionally, they are in charge of screening important information when it is sent up through the executive ranks.
In the end, the chief of staff assists CEOs in a variety of ways to guarantee that the company’s objectives and efforts are accomplished.
For the CEO, all administrative, financial, and operational tasks are typically planned and managed by the chief of staff. While serving as a business counselor, the chief of staff frequently assists the CEO in properly managing their time. The head of staff is responsible for ensuring that the business runs properly, daily success in this job could lead to promotions to the vice president or chief operating officer, for example.
Chief of Staff Job Description
What is the chief of staff job description? A chief of staff job description is simply a list of duties and responsibilities of a chief of staff in an organization. Below are the chief of staff job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a chief of staff job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The duties and responsibilities of a chief of staff include the following;
- Oversee the formulation and successful execution of key business projects.
- Help the executive team members identify and order business plans by their timetables.
- Assist executives in decision-making, program management, and initiative implementation by communicating with them.
- Review, plan, and implement changes to the organizational structure; identify knowledge and skill shortages and assist in filling them.
- Maximize efficiency and production, enhance current processes, and align corporate practices.
- Act as a point of contact for staff, executives, leaders, and the CEO about the working environment, employee welfare, project updates, suggestions, and planning
- Collaborate with the EVP team and department heads to oversee daily operations, manage calendars, and create correspondence among other administrative chores.
- Create and maintain relationships with all employees of the businesses to improve efficiency and responsiveness in current operations and to aid in the definition of new operational strategies while working on specialized projects with our EVP and executive teams.
- Assist in the production and dissemination of communications, handle inquiries, devise action plans to address them, and serve as a subject matter expert.
- Brief the board of directors on business during a meeting.
- Organize regular meetings with the department heads.
- Take a look at and analyze departmental reports.
- Compile departmental report data into a single company report.
- Create ideas for improving underperforming departments.
- department heads with management success coaching.
- Track market trends.
- Continue your market research.
- Manage connections with various internal divisions as well as external enterprises, governmental agencies, and community organizations.
- Prepare department performance reports, identify issues, and make recommendations for management.
- Assess potential hires for departmental roles or select individuals based on supervisors’ recommendations.
- Serve as a liaison between the department and other internal departments, such as the accounting, finance, and human resources departments.
- Review employee performance and advise management on promotions, demotions, transfers, and termination.
- Ensure that employees have access to the tools they need, such as training opportunities and equipment purchases, to do their tasks well.
- Control an organization’s administrative operations, including its purchasing, accounting, and IT departments.
- Collaborate with other departments to guarantee efficient resource utilization and prevent duplication of tasks or services.
- Prepare department performance reports, identify issues, and make recommendations for management.
- Build the executive office and oversee everyday activities.
- Establish a cadence for board meetings, leadership offsites, and leadership meetings, as well as assist to structure and distribute company-wide communication.
- Lead cross-functional strategic initiatives, oversee unique projects, and make sure the Founder’s action items are carried out.
- Manage initiatives that don’t cleanly fit within the organizational structure or that fall within departments or leadership areas of responsibility by operating at the tactical, strategic, and operational levels.
- Serve as a conduit for information, a filter for information, and a facilitator with internal and external stakeholders as an extension of the founder.
- Analyze all questions sent to the Founder, decide which are most important, and take the appropriate action.
- Serve as the Founder’s main point of contact with the direct reporting. To make sure the CEO’s calendar is in line with the organization’s priorities, triage any incoming requests for his time and collaborate with the founder’s executive assistant.
- Follow up with the Founder’s team to find out why goals are not being fulfilled. Make suggestions for improvement that can be implemented.
- Encourage cross-functional communication and cooperation as well as team cohesion.
- Maintain critical connections and create a system to monitor and look after important clients, investors, and stakeholders.
- Keep track of the Founder’s top priorities to find any potential roadblocks.
- Serve as the founder’s thinking partner and strategic advisor entails attending meetings, challenging ideas, providing an alternative viewpoint, and following up on action items with the team as necessary.
- Give the Founder insight, suggestions, and choices regarding important matters.
- Maintain the Founder’s reputation and brand.
Qualifications
- A business administration degree or a related degree.
- 5+ years in a managerial or business capacity
- A track record of successfully managing numerous teams and departments
- Successfully managed projects in the past
- Excellent written and verbal communicator who places a heavy emphasis on departmental communication
- Incredibly adaptable and committed to productivity effectiveness
- A history of organizing and directing strategic projects
Essential Skills
- Communication: People who become chiefs of staff need to have excellent written and verbal communication skills since they encourage collaboration inside an organization by doing so. Communication skills help share ideas and provide information since they interact with personnel at all levels of the organization. The chief of staff can foster positive working relationships and contribute to a productive workplace by using their communication abilities.
- Observation of details: The organization is needed to handle administrative tasks like budgeting and scheduling. Paying close attention to the little things might assist in organizing and managing duties. This ability helps the head of staff to swiftly recognize problems that have an impact on business operations.
- Resolving issues: The head of staff’s major responsibility is to make sure that business operations continue to run smoothly. To achieve this, they tackle issues and come up with original ideas to enhance procedures, the workplace, or employee relations. The chief of staff can improve the organization by creating programs, strategies, and processes through issue solving.
- Leadership: Giving direction and support is crucial in this executive job. You can manage, supervise, and delegate duties with the support of strong leadership skills. The head of staff uses leadership to model for workers what is expected of them.
- Management of projects: Project management is a valuable ability to learn because the chief of staff directs activities, creates strategy, and oversees staff members. Making decisions for other corporate operations might be influenced by understanding project management processes. The ability to adapt can also be developed through project management experience.
- Thinking critically: Central to a CoS’s skills is the capacity for critical thought and problem-solving. The head of staff must actively conceptualize, apply, synthesize, and evaluate various types of data from numerous streams throughout the organization because they are involved in many (if not all) high-level decisions. Self-awareness is essential in the capacity to think critically and arrive at the best decision under the circumstances. This information can be obtained or generated by observing, experiencing, reflecting, reasoning, or communicating.
- Adaptability: Another essential trait that the chief of staff exhibits is adaptability. A flexible, open-minded, and willing-to-adjust CoS will succeed. The CoS frequently handles unique and unforeseen events, therefore the capacity to make wise choices immediately is crucial. It’s also important to note that a CoS often does not get any formal or explicit instructions. To make the best judgments for the organization as a whole decisions that are frequently challenging to make this leader must be vivacious, knowledgeable, and confident in their judgment. Because they are adaptive, the CoS often learns quickly. Continually trying new things and stretching your problem-solving abilities in various contexts are two ways to improve your adaptability.
A head of staff is perceptive, knowledgeable, and independent. This job entails a lot of responsibility and calls for a broad range of experience. People who want to be CoS must do so to spare their principal from unnecessary anxiety.
- Policy formulation: Compliance and the formulation of policies go hand in hand. Because one cannot exist without the other, the chief of staff must know both about formulating and assessing policies. This means that the CoS has the authority to choose what the organization should strive to accomplish, what is being done to achieve the goal, how and at what cost these achievements can be attained, who must be involved, and the necessary timescale. The creation of policies not only guarantees that the organization operates as efficiently as possible but also that the goals of the company are fully compliant with the legal and social framework.
How to Become a Chief of Staff
- Achieve a master’s degree: A high level of competence is needed to keep an organization’s business operations running smoothly. The majority of people who work as chiefs of staff have a master’s degree in their specialty. A master’s degree in engineering, for instance, would be required of the chief of staff of an engineering firm. Gaining a degree aids in the development of important abilities, and some programs give students practical experience to get them ready for the workforce.
The qualifications for this post can vary based on the organization, thus occasionally someone with a bachelor’s degree can get the job and then go back to school for a master’s. The chief of staff must perform numerous office and administrative duties, so having a bachelor’s degree in administration is quite helpful.
- Obtain executive operations experience: The chief of staff often does not receive on-the-job training, but senior-level roles benefit from the experience. In executive positions like business support manager, administrative supervisor, director, or chief financial officer, employers may need five or more years of experience.
Although working in the field is ideal, you can develop transferrable abilities like management and leadership in other fields. Attending conferences on the administration of business operations is another way to get experience.
- Aim for certification: Although they are rarely necessary, certifications can give you an edge over the competition. Strategic planning, management fundamentals, and leadership attributes are covered in the Executive Leadership Certification program. You might also think about getting an executive management certification, which can help you improve your communication and delegation skills as well as your risk management abilities.
- Apply for roles as chief of staff: You can apply for chief of staff positions if you’ve completed your studies and gained experience. It’s imperative to gain experience initially by working in other leadership jobs. You might be able to apply for a job with the organization where you earned expertise. Employing people from within the organization is advantageous since you become familiar with operations. You can look for work at other companies as well, but it’s best to start there.
Where to Work as a Chief of Staff
Due to the significance of the post, the chief of staff is a full-time position that occasionally calls for overtime. The chief of staff is responsible for completing duties that are necessary for business operations and meeting scheduled deadlines. Although there may be a lot of strain at work, the work is gratifying. They are employed in offices in a variety of sectors, including small and major companies as well as governmental organizations. Many of the chiefs of staff’s daily responsibilities are administrative and supportive, and they interact and work closely with numerous organizational departments.
The chief of staff may be required by some organizations to travel for meetings with shareholders or vendors. However, they typically do their work in an office environment.
Chief of Staff Salary Scale
In the USA, the average chief of staff compensation is $130,453 annually or $66.90 per hour. Most experienced workers earn up to $200,000 per year, while entry-level roles start at $90,000 annually.
In the UK, the average chief of staff wage is £65,000 per year or £33.33 per hour. Most experienced workers earn up to £85,000 per year, while entry-level occupations start at £50,022 annually.
In Canada, the average chief of staff earns $98,681 per year or $50.61 per hour. Most experienced workers can earn up to $133,715 per year, while entry-level roles start at $65,265 annually.
Australia’s typical chief of staff earns $146,274 per year or $75.01 per hour. Most experienced workers can earn up to $207,217 per year, while entry-level roles start at $111,428.